Kellen Moore threw for
three touchdowns and ran for another as #7
Boise
State
cruised past
San Jose
State
45-7 yesterday afternoon
in Bronco Stadium. It was the eighth
consecutive victory for the Broncos with no defeats.
The Spartans had played
Utah
of the Mountain West Conference to a 7-7 tie into the fourth
quarter, but were unable to stop the powerful
Boise
State
offense and were held to
223 total yards by the Bronco defense.
Moore, who is the
nation’s most efficient passer, connected on 21-of-33 for 278 yards before
giving way to junior Mike Coughlin early in the fourth quarter.
He has streaks of 21 games with a completion percentage of 60% or higher
and 17 with multiple touchdown passes. A
definite highlight was a pass to the west sideline to brother Kirby Moore that
resulted in a 61-yard touchdown and the game’s first score.
It was Kirby’s first collegiate touchdown.
“When
that happened on the sideline,” Kirby said, “I think everyone just had a
smile on their face.” “It’s so
hard to play Division I football and then to be able to do that with your
brother is something that is really special. I just think that that’s a
special thing to play college football with your brother, and when you hook up
for a big play like that, and hopefully they’ll be many more down the
road.”
The Bronco defense
ignited the charge with a forced fumble just prior to halftime that made it 24-7
and an interception by captain Kyle Wilson that he turned into a 27-yard
touchdown early in the third quarter that sealed the deal at 38-7.
Wilson
now has nine career
interceptions and
Boise
State
’s 13 picks this season
rank ninth in the country.
With
1:35
left in the half,
Moore
found a wide-open Mitch Burroughs for an 18-yard score as Burroughs too caught his first touchdown pass
as a Bronco. One play after the
ensuing kickoff, safety Jason Robinson stole the ball from Spartan running back
LaMon Muldrow and
Boise
State
had 23 seconds with which
to work.
Moore
hit Tyler Shoemaker with a
21-yard pass and dove from a yard out on the next play.
Ryan Winterswyk closed
out the half with a brilliant sack of Spartan quarterback Jordan LaSecla for a
career-high total of six this season. The
popular Bronco passed former greats
Colt
Brooks
and Pete Kwiatkowski (now
Winterswyk’s defensive line coach) for ninth all-time at
Boise
State
with 16 sacks.
Mike T. Williams is in eighth with 16.5.
Boise
State
finished with 430 yards of
total offense.
Boise
State
is now just six points
behind
Texas
and third in the nation
averaging an even 41 points a game through eight contests.
Doug Martin came on late to lead the Bronco ground game with 63 yards,
including an amazing 36-yard scoring run late in the fourth.
Jeremy Avery added 13 carries for 50 yards.
Austin Pettis led the receiving
corps with five catches for 63 yards and a touchdown while Kirby Moore finished
with four receptions for 80 yards and the touchdown.
Pettis has now caught a pass in 32 straight games, has caught multiple
passes in 16 straight games and has scored in all eight Bronco games this
season. The Bronco junior tied John
“Super Needle” Smith for third with his 24th career touchdown
catch. Don Hutt, who has held the
school record for 36 years with 30, is sitting on top while Ryan Ikebe is #2
with 27.
Pettis also passed former Bronco greats Jeb Putzier (1998-2001) and Lou Fanucchi (1999-2002) and moved into ninth all-time at
Boise
State
with 131 career receptions. He is
just one behind Terry Hutt (1973-1977) for eighth.
Pettis also tied last year’s output of nine TD catches and is tied for
seventh all-time in that department. He
joins Jeremy Childs (2007), Rodney Smith (1997), Ikebe (1996), Eric Andrade
(1987) and Don Hutt (1972).
Kellen Moore is closing in on several school milestones.
He passed Jared Zabransky for fourth all-time in career completions after
a season and a half.
Moore
now has 434 compared to Zabransky’s 419.
#3 will be considerably tougher—Ryan Dinwiddie finished his fabulous
career with 622.
Moore
now has 5,391 career yards passing, about to overtake
legendary Bronco Jim McMillan for fifth in the Bronco record books.
“Jimmy Mac” had 5,508.
Moore
has 5,352 yards of total offense and passed Hazsen Choates for sixth.
Choates had 5,225 in his Bronco career.
McMillan is #5 there as well with 6,115 yards.
Moore
is now seventh in career attempts with 632, passing Mike Virden (626) and
Choates (613). He also passed Tony
Hilde (21 in 1996), Bart Hendricks
(22 in 1999) and Zabransky (23 in 2006) for eighth in career touchdown passes
with 23.
Aaron Tevis tied a season-high
with six tackles to lead
Boise
State
’s defense while Jeron Johnson, Wilson and Byron Hout had five each.
Hout recorded his first sack of the season and also penetrated the
Spartan backfield for two tackles for loss.
“I
think our defense played really well again,” said Bronco coach Chris Petersen.
“If you give up seven points a game you’re doing well and they got
turnovers and just really harassed those guys all night long.
I mean, those guys are heroes around here.”
Kyle Brotzman connected
on all six extra point tries and added a field goal and two punts inside the
20-yard line, including a 73-yarder. The
Broncos rank fourth in the country in net punting.
Brotzman tied Nick Calaycay for third in school history with his 45th
career field goal. The all-time
record is held by Mike Black, who booted 51 from 1988-1991, while Tyler Jones is
second with 46.
LaSecla was held to
10-of-20 for 79 yards and one touchdown by
Boise
State
, which is ranked #11 in
pass efficiency defense. LaSecla
connected with Marquis Avery on a beautiful pass and catch in the corner of the
end zone to tie the game at 7 early. Kevin Jurovich had a fine afternoon with six catches for 69 yards.
Boise
State
advanced to 8-0 and 3-0 in Western Athletic Conference play while
San Jose
State
fell to 1-6 and 0-3.
The Broncos have now won 53 straight games on The Blue and are 68-2 dating
back to the beginning of the 1999 season.
Boise
State
passed
Carlisle
(1901-1915),
Pennsylvania
(1889-1896) and
Michigan
(1901-1907) for fourth place in college football history as those three early
powers each had home winning streaks stopped at 52.
With USC’s loss last night to
Oregon
(which fell to
Boise
State
19-8 in the much-anticipated season opener), the Broncos and Trojans are now
tied with 88 victories in the last eight years.
That ties
Boise
State
’s school record of 88 set last year for seventh in college history.
They can break the modern record of 91 held by
Nebraska
(1993-2000) with four more wins.
Boise
State
has scored in double digits in 50 straight games.
The Broncos travel once again to
Ruston
,
Louisiana
for a game with the still-smarting Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, who fell in the
last minute to
Idaho
last night 35-34. Nevertheless,
Derek Dooley’s team is unbeaten at home with a perfect 3-0 record.
